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Corporate Events: Q & A

Corporate Events: Q & A

Global Experience Designer Jenny Decker, CMP, shares with us the latest trends and insights for planning a memorable corporate event experience.

What part of the event do you personally handle?

My role begins once the location and hotel have been determined; however, because we have a more continuous relationship with our clients, sometimes we are involved earlier and make suggestions based on what we know about the attendees and goals of the next meeting.

Which details would you consider the top priority when planning a corporate event?

First and foremost, we always like to find out the client’s goal for the meeting. Once we know that, we can hone in on more of what the top priorities are for the client. We find that giving the attendees an “experience” that is unique and memorable seems to resonate the most with all clients.

What is one essential that no corporate event should ever be without?

Good food and time out of a hotel ballroom to truly connect are essential. Training and lectures are needed but, especially for corporate events, your attendees are much more productive when they can sit in small groups around a fire pit or in a local pub and share ideas.

In your opinion, what’s one benefit of hiring an event planner?

When you are hosting an internal event, your focus should be on connecting with your colleagues, engaging with your team and getting the full experience of the event. There are so many details, decisions, and frankly, too many “fires to put out” when you are on site; It would be difficult to master both – juggling the details and enjoying the full experience. Having experienced event planners plan your meeting allows you to disconnect from the logistics and focus on your team. Our planning team can see “fires” before they start; we know how to pivot when it goes off track. We have plans and processes to make the entire event run smoothly.

How far in advance do you recommend planning a corporate event for companies considering an incentive trip for their team?

For incentive trips, we recommend a year plus. Depending upon the time of year, you usually have a lot of leisure travelers at these locations which are typically more upscale destinations. The options for availability at hotel properties sell out much more quickly so it’s important to start planning well in advance.

What are some corporate event destinations that we’ve planned recently and why were those locations chosen?

Charleston, Scottsdale, Philadelphia, Cayman Island, Mexico, Key Largo, Las Vegas, Santa Monica, New York, Orlando, and Turks & Caicos have been the most recent destinations.

Each client has their own reasons for choosing a location but most of the time it comes down to convenience and ease of travel to and from the city. Also, depending upon the goal of the meeting, sometimes the time of year and weather preferences are high on the list of musts.

The location of the actual property is one of the most attractive things about these events. If attendees are immersed in the culture of the city and able to walk and explore on their time off, it makes the experience of the event that much more enjoyable.

What is the most exciting part of planning and executing a corporate event from your perspective as a planner?

Finding new ways to engage the attendees and bringing in new vendors that offer something completely unique is an exciting aspect of planning.

Based on the feedback from event attendees, what element of the corporate event seems to be the most impactful?

Attendees seem to prefer events where they can “choose their own adventure”, have a surprise gift that they can personalize themselves, or choose which gift they want from a variety of high-end options.

What’s one activity that was the most fun to plan and see executed?

Any of our incentive trip events would be high on the list. We get to create fun, themed nights for a small group of people and really get to see the surprise and impact that it makes on the group.

What’s different about MTA events compared to other companies?

We aren’t just checking things off lists—we listen. We make sure that it’s the event and experience that our clients want to bring to life. And we use our expertise in logistics and design to make sure that it is truly a remarkable event that your attendees will talk about when they get back home.

Our Global Experience Team can help you design your next incentive trip, global sales meeting, or other corporate event. For more information, contact our team today.

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3 Key Ingredients for Planning Successful Corporate Events

Whether you plan, manage, attend or participate in a corporate event, we all know what it feels like to be a part of a successful outcome.

We know what feels, sounds and looks good – and we know when it doesn’t. It can be hard to put into words what exactly is most important, most valuable, or most appreciated during an event and after.

After experiencing everything under the sun in the world of corporate events, we are uniquely qualified to determine and identify the characteristics that are most beneficial during the event planning and management process.

Factors for Successful Corporate Events

If you want to make sure your next event gives attendees an incredible experience, there are a few key factors that are critical to help drive success – especially if you are working with an event planner.

At Miller Tanner, we believe that every event requires the following three ingredients to ensure success.

1. Communication is paramount.

Asking the right questions upfront, understanding the client’s expectations to help define success and translating those desires into operational actions are the keys to our success.

For example, once a client hires Miller Tanner, we start by holding a joint kickoff meeting to introduce key staff members on both teams, solidify meeting goals, learn about preferences, and outline the next steps of the planning process.

Each and every client and event is unique. It takes a lot of communication to fully understand a client’s wants and needs. This understanding helps us create an event that reflects their vision.

Effective communication is also required throughout the entire planning process to ensure a successful event. Change happens; being flexible with solutions and other options ensures communication channels remain open and effective.

For instance, a number of factors can impact the timeline, such as protocol challenges, and site or attendee selection delays. And there are other times when we have significantly less time than would be considered ideal to plan an event – but this can’t stop you from having a great event!

Communicating about issues that arise, like adjustments to timeline, procedural updates, etc., is the key to establishing realistic expectations and determining success!

2. Partnership is vital.

For us, these first two points tend to run together, as communication is the primary key to an honest and mutually beneficial partnership.

Approaching each project with a clear understanding of the client’s needs allows us to confidently determine the best services, staff and resources to deliver an exceptional event and ensure our client’s desired outcome is reached.

Each event has an on-site lead that acts as the point of contact for our clients throughout the event. Behind the on-site lead is the project manager and designated support team that specializes in registration processes, collateral materials, visa and air acquisition and a variety of other specialists.

Additionally, we assign account directors to act as an additional point of contact for each client, which helps increase the consistency and excellence within the client partnership.

Walking the path with our clients is a natural part of what we do. Being an engaged partner is our goal to ensure our clients have choices when it comes to their events.

3. Innovation does matter.

Every event planning company is looking to use innovation to revolutionize participant experiences. This typically pertains to advancements made in technology or logistics, but we have constantly innovated our processes to reflect a highly relational, strength-centric planning and management service.

For instance, following every event, we administer client and attendee satisfaction surveys which measure our company’s meeting planning success. This direct feedback enables us to continuously improve our processes and look for further ways to be innovative when it comes to our meeting planning activities.

Our teams also conduct post-event evaluations with the client to discuss the successes and lessons learned to apply for their next event. We use this information to further identify trends that we escalate internally for resolution or discuss specific processes for reconsideration.

Working with an event planning team that places a priority on innovation will help you host a creative, engaging and successful event.

How to Create a Successful Event

Miller Tanner welcomes the opportunity to help you plan your next corporate event, and keeping these three tenets in mind will lead to a more successful event outcome.

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Why Try Hybrid Events?

What is a Hybrid Event?

Essentially, a hybrid event is any combination of a face-to-face and virtual or digital experience.

You might have a 5,000-person virtual event with 20 people joining in-person in one location. Or you might have 100 people face-to-face in meeting rooms and 100 people attending virtually online. Or you could have 5000 attendees with a live speaker being recorded and filmed at a remote location. These are just a few examples of the countless options that hybrid events can offer. Bottom line: With hybrid events, the possibilities are endless.

Why Hybrid Events Are a Good Solution Especially Now

Hybrid events have always been a great solution. For years at MTA, we’ve been using a combination of face-to-face, virtual, and hybrid events to enhance learning, strengthen the conversation before or after an event, boost return on investment and improve audience connection.

Now that companies are forced to go virtual due to the current pandemic, organizations have lost their “fear factor”, have stepped outside their comfort zone, and have started to think outside the box; now there’s curiosity around what it looks like to extend and further engage their audience in the future.

Easily Pivot Your Meeting During an Unpredictable Time with Hybrid Events

As many companies have pivoted their face-to-face events to virtual as a result of the pandemic, this trend will continue in 2021 with a hybrid model. Hybrid events will be necessary to allow all attendees to participate at their comfort level. For those individuals where it’s safe to return to in-person events, they can participate face-to-face; and for those who have reasons why they can’t attend face-to-face, hybrid enables them the opportunity to attend the event without being in person.

Advantages of Hybrid Events

Expand Your Audience

One important advantage of hybrid events is the ability to expand your audience to include those who cannot travel to the event but can still attend the event virtually. The idea of attrition begins to shift – It’s not a traditional attrition model anymore of who can’t attend the event, but rather those who can’t attend in-person now have a second opportunity to say yes to your event.

Additionally, audiences are hungry for great content and for exceptional virtual experiences. They want to learn more, attend more, and experience more. This particular time period in our history allows so many people to expand their horizons and their knowledge base.

As a result, we’re not seeing a decline in hybrid or virtual audiences; we’re seeing increases in expansions of audiences allowing for reach that didn’t exist before.

It’s an opportunity to embrace and recognize that there is an audience, that they want to be engaged, and that if we provide great content, and engaging experiences, then they’ll continue to come and, and feast off of what we’re sharing.

Ensure Safety during Uncertainty

Safety certainly is a very important issue. There will be COVID-related restrictions for all face-to-face events moving forward, but some of those restrictions, guidelines, and safety measures aren’t enough for certain portions of your audience who may be impacted for a variety of other reasons such as health risk factors for themselves or someone with whom they live or childcare limitations.

The hybrid event then enables you to customize your event, to ensure everyone feels comfortable at the level at which they’re able to engage. And for some people that will be virtual and for some people that will be face-to-face.

Flexible, Built-In Contingency Planning

The great advantage of a hybrid model is that it offers a built-in contingency plan should situations change.

For example, 12 weeks from now, the country or the region in which you are are conducting your event, or from where your audience is traveling, needs to move fully virtual due to imposed travel restrictions. By planning a hybrid event to be fully executed alongside your primary face-to-face event, you can quickly convert your entire conference into a full virtual experience.

Why MTA is the Right Partner for your Hybrid Event

Experience and Expertise

One of the benefits of working with Miller Tanner Associate is that we have been planning virtual events for the past 10 years for our clients. Our company, itself has been a virtual company for 23 years.

Over the past five years, a high percentage of our in-person events have been converting to virtual. There’s always been a virtual component to our face-to-face events, whether it’s a small virtual audience, or a small group of virtual speakers. As a result, we have a high level of experience helping our clients determine how to engage people virtually.

Return on Your Investment

Helping clients create a return on investment is another benefit of working with an event planner like Miller Tanner Associates. Working with our team shows you how to create this ROI, as it doesn’t necessarily happen naturally in a virtual or a hybrid scenario. It requires core planning, structuring your agenda to maximize your content delivery, and employing technologies to ensure the engagement.

We’ve done the testing within our own team, and with years of experience in using the virtual model, we take that trial and error out of the way for you.

Beyond Plan B

We want our partners to have peace of mind with every event. Moving forward in 2021, every face-to-face event that we plan, will have a shadow hybrid event, meaning a virtual event is being planned alongside the in-person event in case the event requires a sudden pivot to virtual or hybrid.

Hybrid events are truly the best of both worlds. The hybrid model offers an effective way to maximize and personalize an event experience that can accommodate any audience both in-person or remote. To learn more about hybrid events, contact our Global Experiences Team.

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3 Reasons Top Pharma and Biotech Companies Rely on a Corporate Event Planner

The biggest challenge for biopharma companies when it comes to planning events may be the lack of internal staff to handle such an undertaking from start to finish. Not to mention, understanding the nuances associated with many moving parts can complicate the planning process.

That’s where Miller Tanner comes in as a one-stop-shop with proven processes for all things meeting planning related.

While some companies have meeting and event planning services and/or travel services within their own organizations, these resources may be too stretched to take on a “big” meeting. Likewise, smaller companies are often strapped for resources too which requires existing staff to take on additional “special projects” like this.

Hiring a planner can make all the difference in the success of your next meeting. That’s why top companies in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries rely on a corporate event planner to get the job done. Here are 3 reasons why they turn to the experts:

1). We are pros at handling the fine details.

Miller Tanner is a global, full-service meeting planning company utilized for organizing logistics and professional events both big and small in size. We can take the burden off of bio-pharma internal resources by taking care of the smallest details they might not consider when planning the meeting, such as clearly defining the meeting specifications, providing concise attendee lists, securing visas as needed, and handling negotiation of budgets for other vendors required such as travel, hotel, and ground transportation.

We serve as a liaison with hotel staff so you do not have to worry about the details of room assignments/availability, nor worry that the VIP rooms will be ready when you are. Onsite activities we handle include confirming rooming lists, handling adequate food and beverage orders per person, and ensuring all expected attendees are accounted for throughout the event.

While onsite, our staff helps to manage time between agenda sessions, handles helpdesk registration sign-ins, and offers suggestions for the unforeseeable schedule or banquet adjustments.

Compliance and security are another area of expertise that we offer. We are able to provide compliance documentation so that your team does not have to worry about government reporting requirements for healthcare providers if applicable. We have a well-defined compliance policy for healthcare professionals we can deploy as needed. Advanced planning for emergency situations is another key task to consider. The safety of all attendees is our top priority.

These are just a few examples of the finer details that may go unconsidered if planning meetings and events are not your “day job”.

2). We keep you within your budget and leverage additional cost savings.

A major benefit of hiring a corporate event planner is cost savings. As experts in the field for over 19 years, we know the ins and outs of saving our clients money and we have several proven methods of accomplishing just that.

Venues are often a big part of the meeting spend. Because we conduct many meetings a year across the globe, we have long-standing, established relationships with numerous meeting venues and vendor partners to expedite the overall process from the start of the planning phase. We can leverage cost savings for your hotel and ground transportation using our connections and effective rate negotiations on your behalf.

We track every dollar. When it comes to tallying the budget, we reconcile the entire spend and send it to you in an electronic file format. This file provides supporting documentation of funds spent and how the funds were applied.

3). We offer meeting solutions that are efficient and save you time.

MIller Tanner Associates Global Meeting and Event Planners

When a bio-pharma company employs Miller Tanner we like to function as an extension of your existing team doing the “heavy lifting” using our expertise and your guidance. This is our core competency and we know most of our existing clients would prefer to outsource this task if given the choice.

We help select venues and meeting locations that are time efficient for travel to and from. We are able to provide a concise budget, conduct hotel searches and narrow the details so that you are able to have laser focus in attaining your meeting goals. Giving you options when it comes to your meeting location is one step.

An additional benefit that we can provide when it comes to meeting solutions is the capability to create hybrid meetings, using top-notch technology, to virtually bring in any key speakers or attendees that are unavailable to travel in person. When time zones aren’t impacted, we can even bring in a specific country virtually to participate.

Our dynamic global logistics team of event planners can make sure your next meeting is a successful one. We’ll meet all of your timelines and budgets, stay on top of the smallest details, and exceed all of your meeting expectations. We’re here to support you.

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The Future of Face-to-Face Events in 2020 (Part 1)

Since February, the landscape of in-person meetings and events has shifted dramatically. MTA’s Chief Experience Officer (CXO) Meredith Shottes, CMP shares her insights in this in-depth discussion regarding the future of face-to-face events in 2020.

Are face-to-face meetings and events dead?

No, they are not dead. Definitely not. They are alive in larger ways than we could have ever anticipated. I think more than ever, it clarifies for people the value of a face-to-face experience. We have always known that face-to-face experiences were valuable and now that they have been completely taken away, it has shown their true value in terms of return on investment, connection for learning models, and how to truly make relationships, business, and education grow. They are vital components of events. It’s a vital component of being a human being to be able to connect with people. That can happen virtually and we have many dynamic and wonderful solutions to help you make the most of your virtual experiences. But also know that live events are not dead – they’re just on pause for the moment.

What do face-to-face events and meetings look like moving forward in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic?

I think what we’ll see with regards to face-to-face experience is a modified experience where small groups of people will gather together to have experiences that might look like smaller multiple events instead of one large event. You may have regional-specific events or country-specific events. You’ll likely have a virtual component to each of those events where there’s a connection between the live events that are happening. And of course, I think we’ll see a tremendous amount of shift in the way in which that attendees interact. I think this is actually probably one of the most exciting times with regards from an environmental perspective and from an efficiency perspective, with the adoption of technology that allows more paperless and touchless options.

What are some of the challenges and what key areas will be impacted?

I think the biggest challenge that we’re facing right now, and it’s an understandable one, is fear. We don’t know everything about COVID at this time. And so for attendees, meeting organizers, event creators, and our clients, it becomes paralyzing to begin to try and make decisions on events six months down the line as we are continually learning new things each day. So the real challenge for us right now is not the practical logistics or the required cleaning schedules of any given venue or how to distribute food; the real challenge for the industry is fear. And we have to find a way to help our attendees and meeting organizers, event organizers, and our clients overcome that fear when it’s safe and responsible to do so by using the best data and the best science that the world has to offer to help us make educated and informed decisions.

What trends are you seeing this year given COVID-19 challenges?

I do think that the first trend is, of course, technology in the face-to-face experience and to have a more contact-free event. I also think that for all of our face-to-face events, we are all going to build off of hybrid technologies, meaning that more and more face-to-face events will have two audiences – a large portion of the audience in-house at the face-to-face event and a large portion of the audience in a virtual stream. And so what you’ll need to develop as a meeting and event organizer is to ensure that the content is appropriate to both of those streams, so that both audiences feel like they’re engaged, and that there may be differences.

We need to ensure that the virtual audience has as much opportunity to participate as the face-to-face audience does. What that looks like is networking opportunities and leveraging technology platforms that allow collaborative interaction to build the same rapport and connection with both audiences.

I think we’ll hopefully be seeing, as another trend in events in 2020, the huge environmental impacts that will come out of the event industry. For example, if you can use facial recognition technology in order for someone to enter the meeting space instead of producing a name badge for them, you have just reduced your name badge needs completely, which provides a huge environmental impact. Also, in this short term, I do think we’ll begin to find new ways both in hotels and restaurants to offer more choices and thus have an impact both from a financial perspective and from an environmental and food waste perspective.

Is Miller Tanner planning any f2f events in 2020?

We are planning face-to-face events in 2020! I think what is really clear about this time period is that there are incredibly different experiences of every single human being on the planet with regard to COVID-19. I personally happen to live in New York City, so I have been on one of the most extreme lockdowns that the United States has experienced, but I have colleagues that work in Hungary on our team where they have had very little exposure to COVID-19 in their communities and in their country at large. And so with regards to face-to-face events, we are seeing events confirmed in regions that have not had huge amounts of impact by COVID-19. And those regions we are supporting with our local teams to produce at the request of our clients and where we believe it’s safe to operate at the right time.

To read part 2 of our interview with Meredith Shottes, CXO, click here.

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Key Questions to Ask When Hiring a Corporate Event Planner

If you are charged with hiring an event planner for your next corporate meeting, whether it be for a pharmaceutical investigator meeting or a company’s national sales meeting, the task may seem daunting, especially if this is new territory for you. What key factors should you consider when hiring a corporate event planner to execute your next meeting? What are the important questions to ask?

Every single day we are amazed by the variety and depth of questions that we are asked by our existing and potential new clients. Each of their unique perspectives help us to enhance the conversation about what Miller Tanner Associates can bring to the table throughout our partnership development. Plus, it allows us to find potential new ways to expand our global service offerings to fit each client’s individual needs.

To help you better navigate this process, we’ve compiled a list of key questions to ask when hiring a corporate event planner.

However, before seeking out an event planner, we first suggest doing some initial homework that will help you and your event planner prepare for a successful event. We recommend having a general idea for these 5 areas in advance:

Key Questions to Answer Before Hiring an Event Planner

1). Timeline for planning

We recommend typically a 12-16 week lead time from client award to desired meeting date in order to accommodate all parties involved.

Proactively planning can also save the client on airfare with tickets purchased 14-21 days in advance too. While Miller Tanner has hosted events, both face-to-face and virtual in as few as 10 days, the lead time is a very important consideration to ensure an event’s success as defined by attendance ratios. If an event is planned on short notice, location options and venues may be limited, often resulting in a premium for the venue space.

Additionally, if you schedule an event on short notice, key speakers’ schedules, and/or attendees’ schedules may not have the flexibility for their attendance. With this in mind, try to plan ahead at least 12 weeks as there is a direct correlation between advanced notice to invited parties and acceptance rates.

2). Number of attendees

We plan meetings for as few as 10 and as many as 1000. The size of your meeting attendance can have several implications.

For instance, many hotels in Europe are well suited to accommodate and host under 200 attendees at once in their meeting space.

For events over 300 persons, hotel options are limited for not only meeting room logistics, but actual hotel rooming under one roof. Putting attendees up at multiple venues can be an added challenge for transfers between properties.

3). Locational preferences

It is nice to have a destination in mind; however, our expertise is making recommendations for unique experiences while staying on budget.

There are some great airport properties to consider if your agenda is short and people won’t be leaving the venue. However, many of our clients like to choose city central locations which offer within a short walking distance some cultural activities to get a “feel” of the city’s vibe like Amsterdam, Barcelona or Buenos Aires.

4). Budgetary considerations

If travel budgets are limited, meetings can be conducted virtually. Alternatively, if your attendance ratio is tracking lower than you desire, Miller Tanner can record the meeting and post on our proprietary On-Demand Trainer/Learning Management System for future training use to ensure 100% completion of required training. We have innovative approaches that can have a positive impact on your budget’s bottom line.

5). Program success

Most importantly, understand your program’s goals.

When working with our clients at Miller Tanner, knowing our clients’ goals enables our team to hear their needs to make recommendations based upon our prior experience to help shape their agenda to achieve them. Understanding our clients’ preferences and how they define success upfront is key!

Key Questions to Ask When Hiring an Event Planner

1). General Capabilities and Support Provided

You’ll want to find out their general capabilities and how an event planner will support you during your face-to-face, virtual and/or hybrid meetings. You might consider asking:

What is the company’s area of expertise?
What is the process for deploying a meeting and what specific services will be provided?
What factors should I consider when determining a virtual or hybrid meeting versus a face-to-face meeting?

2). Operations Structure

Different meeting planners offer different operational structures. You’ll want to know upfront how an event planner’s organizational model works and if it’s a good fit for your event needs.

Will I have one contact person or be working with a team of planners throughout the planning process?
How many planners will be available on the day of the event?
What method of communication is preferred?

3). Media and Production Services

Additionally, it’s useful to understand how a meeting planning company leverages their in-house media and production team and the full array of services offered to enhance the attendee experience at each event. Does the media and production team include services such as:

Equipment/technician oversight?
Graphics, design, and support?
Technical direction of the event?
What will I be responsible for providing?

4). Compliance and Security Measures

Ensure that the company you are considering takes seriously the security of your valuable proprietary information and attendee data, make sure it is “best in class”.

Does the company you are considering offer compliance as a service?
Are standard operating systems in place and available for review?
Where is your meeting data stored and how safe is storage?

5). Financial Reporting Procedures

It’s wise to understand the full scope of a meeting planning company’s financial reporting services to ensure that they capture all the details for regulatory required reporting. Questions you might consider asking are:

How often will billing updates be provided?
Are final bills paid, documented, and provided as a single package?
How are Sunshine Act reports handled, if required?

6). Company Philosophy

Lastly, it’s important to consider an event planning company’s philosophy and determine if it is ultimately in sync with your company’s values and your event goals.

Will our company values align?
Do I feel like a VIP when interacting with your event planner?
How are the small details handled?

At Miller Tanner, our company’s philosophy is simple, “do the right thing and good things will come”. We believe that deep partnerships over the long-term yield the best results for both our clients and our team. We are interested in relationships that span decades, not just pieces of business.

We hope this blog post gives you more insight into the right questions to ask before hiring your next event planner. If you are interested in partnering with Miller Tanner Associates to plan your next event, then bring your ideas, and let’s talk about solutions to help you achieve your next meeting’s goals.

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5 Corporate Event Experience Trends in 2020

Last week, we shared our top five favorite event style trends from Event Manager Blog‘s 2020 top trends list. This week we share our five favorite event experience trends. Bring these popular ideas to your next corporate event experience.

1. Include Altruism, Wellness, and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Tap into the emotional intelligence of your audience by bringing a more altruistic midset to your event. This is an important piece of everyday life for individuals so why not showcase at your event to inspire your attendees.

Some ways to do this:

Include zones where attendees can focus on wellness aspects like a yoga zone or massage chairs.
Schedule outdoor breaks that allow your attendees the opportunity to get outside, breathe fresh air, or take a brisk walk.
Focus on others with an onsite CSR project built right into your meeting.
Be mindful of work-life balance and incorporate concepts into your event.

2. Content is Key

With so much easy access to information 24-7, it’s vital that your event content is engaging in a way that isn’t just added white noise among the barrage of information.

“Keeping your audience engaged means more than simply entertaining them. To engage an audience isn’t just to hold their attention, but to hold their attention for a thoughtful purpose…stimulating the five senses can do wonders, as long as it serves to keep the audience focused on a thematic message,” reports Event Manager Blog.

3. Listen to Your Audience

How will you know that your content was engaging? Simply, by listening to your audience through their feedback. Post-event surveys allow you to evaluate the return on the experience (ROE) so that you can continue to improve your participants’ experiences at future events.

4. Add the Element of Surprise

By adding an element of surprise to your event, you keep your audience more engaged. This can also create a more memorable experience while adding to the WOW factor.

Some ways to do this:

Create an interactive mystery element, for example, escape rooms or a murder mystery dinner.
Provide unexpected gifting suite/baskets or even a handwritten note from team leaders.
Plan surprise entertainment or an outing around the host city.

5. Learn from Neuroscience

We can learn a lot about attendee behavior from emerging neuroscience data. What creates better social opportunities? How can we improve attendee knowledge retention? How can we boost engagement? These are all questions that neuroscience can provide clues for answering.

Plan breaks in your agenda, preferably every 20 minutes; it improves engagement, learning, and attendees’ overall wellbeing.
Build in time for your attendees to process the information being learned. This can be done through small groups, break-out sessions, or individual time spent writing down what they’ve learned.

Let the Miller Tanner Associates team guide you through the complicated task of planning an event experience that will yield measurable success.

Resource: Event Manager Blog

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Events Mash-Up: Engage Your Event Audience

We’ve compiled our best blogs with tips for engaging your event audience. Supercharge your internal events, meetings, and trainings with expert advice using these strategies from the Miller Tanner Team. Reach out to our team for more information about how you can engage your audiences.

Use Technology to Boost Your Presentation Engagement

We have a few proven ways guaranteed to make your event’s presentation more engaging with the help of technology.

10 Benefits of a Paperless Meeting

Here are 10 convincing reasons to shred the paper and embrace the digital devices at your next meeting and how you can better engage your audiences.

Audience Response System (ARS) for Attendee Engagement

Engage Your Audience with ARS

One of the most effective ways that we’ve found to assess and engage your audience is by using an Audience Response System (ARS) to enhance your meeting.

Add More Fun to Corporate Events

Have your corporate events become stale? Are you looking to add a unique touch to your company’s meeting? Do you wish you had better engagement from your team? With the help of expert planners to guide you, you can design an event that is more personalized, exciting, and engaging for your attendees.

Using Video And Visual Content To Improve Virtual Event Engagement

If you are looking for a creative approach to onboarding new employees, optimize your onboarding with video and visual content as part of your training.

Get Help Planning Your Next Virtual Event

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Add More Fun to Your Corporate Event

Have your corporate events become stale? Are you looking to add a unique touch to your company’s meeting? Do you wish you had better engagement from your team?

For starters, add more fun elements to your next corporate gathering! With some creative thinking outside the box and the help of expert planners to guide you, you can design an event that is more personalized, exciting, and engaging for your attendees.

10 Fun Corporate Event Ideas

Here are just a few ideas that our Miller Tanner Team has used to bring more fun to the corporate events that we’ve designed.

1. Pick a Theme

A theme can unleash so many creative ideas, boost attendee engagement, and bring the details of your entire event together in a way that WOWs the crowd.

2. Unique, Interactive Food and Beverage Options

Instead of gathering your team around the proverbial watercooler, gather your attendees around a food and beverage station that is sure to spark fun and engagement during the break time. Try adding a sugary donut wall or a customized drink dispenser such as Drink Ripple (pictured).

3. Choose Your Gift

Remember those choose-your-own-ending stories? Well, the latest new trend in corporate event gifting is offering a gifting suite where attendees can choose their own gift, the one that speaks to them personally (pictured).

4. Customize the Roomset

We have so many options in roomset design. You can add the unexpected twist to your traditional meeting room with cozy sofas, modern chairs, or outdoor-style loungers.

5. Get Outside

Take your meeting outdoors. Offer a rejuvenating activity like outdoor yoga or yard games. Dine al fresco under the stars (pictured). The sky’s the limit when you take your event outside of the venue conference space.

6. Friendly Competition

Who doesn’t like a little friendly competition among coworkers? Bring your team together for unique competitions like ax-throwing or a game of skeeball (pictured) aimed at bringing fun into a friendly match.

7. Get Techy

Technology is a powerful tool to boost your attendees’ engagement. Using apps, virtual reality (VR), and holograms, learning can be entertaining and memorable.

8. Include Cultural Entertainment

If your event is hosted in a country with a vibrant culture, use it as an opportunity to partake in cultural activities with your team. You’ll gain a new understanding of the world together while adding fun entertainment to your event.

9. Invite an Inspirational Speaker

Bring in a comedian or motivational speaker to teach a new perspective, motivate with an inspirational talk, or to simply bring some uproarious laughter to your event.

10. Add CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility activities can bring your team together for a great cause while fostering team bonding. Whether your teams are competing to build a bike for youth or assembling gift baskets, they will certainly have fun doing something meaningful together for others.

Our team can design a perfectly unique corporate event for your company. Contact us to get started!

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Corporate Event Experiences at Miller Tanner Associates

Contact the Miller Tanner Global Experience Team today and start planning your next corporate event experience.